Canoeing On The Sante Fe

Today we took advantage of the absolutely gorgeous weather and took Josiah on his first canoe trip.  We’ve been waiting for just the right time and the right weather to attempt this and I’ll admit, I was skeptical about how it would turn out and thought maybe we should leave him with mom.  I could picture a bored toddler that needed to move around and expected it to last a half hour at the max.  However, he did great!

Here is my cutie in his life vest.  Jacob and I have decided that someone should invent a comfortable life vest for toddlers and babies since they all seem to come up around their faces.  Josiah got several “awww’s” from some girls putting in kayaks at the ramp.  If you think they look a little funny in this picture, notice that it is because Jacob has his tickling finger out!

I had planned to settle Josiah in the floor of the canoe where he could play safely and eat snacks and I could help paddle upstream, but he insisted on being in my lap for the fist half which limited the amount of help I could give poor Jacob.  Finally, once the thrill of the new adventure wore off, he did settle down in the bottom of the canoe and just lounged back, ate Cheerios, drank his drink, played with his tractor and watched the river go by.  Lucky for me, by then we were headed back downstream!

We had a great little first time trip.  Maybe next time we’ll put more planning into it and make it more extensive. 

Next up…camping!  (We are starting off with one night in the tent in our front yard just to be safe!)

This is why we love our car!  It might not be “cool”, but it can do anything without the extra gas and insurance that SUV’s and trucks involve.  It has forded rivers in the mountains, carried our canoe, and been packed down with tons of stuff.  Next week it will carry me and mom to the Country Living Festival outside Atlanta.  We may challenge its stowing capacity!